Group 1 update - 6/25

Group 1 is alive is well! We have had two busy, but fun-filled, God filled days! Tuesday was awesome as we worked extremely hard on campus, painting a new Hope Home for teens, and many brave souls spent hours in a sand bucket brigade hauled tons of cement to the roof of the final Hope Home. I have never seen a group of people work so hard so long! Their muscles were on fire! After a great morning of hard work for everyone, we were rewared when the bus pulled up and 50 screaming children jumped off ready to party! The kids we have so deeply connected with the past several days were so excited to play in our larger pool! They had a wonderful afternoon surrounded by sheer love on the Back 2 Back campus-then the sad moment was upon us. Many rushed to grab their sunglasses so the children would not see us crying as they loaded up to head home. Worship last night was very emotional as kids and leaders were brought to their knees by the sadness of saying goodbye to our beautiful young friends. We will all go home with our hearts just a little bit broken-0k-, maybe more than just a little bit. But today-new hope, new home and new kids! We were so excited to go to El Retiro, the home in which Ryan worked the most when he was here. We worked extremely hard, moving dirt, shoveling gravel and mixing cement to pour a sidewalk around the new bodega. Extremely dirty, hard labor! Our kids had great attitudes and worked so hard! We also had a little time to make some cool connections with awesome new kids. This is great because tomorrow we get to take our new friends hiking in a gorgeous park!
Bottom line on day 4-Group 1 is sore, sunburned, exhausted, heartbroken, confused, joyous and GOD BLESSED!

Tina Rogal